Sky Stream has arrived in Ireland

Butson

Rights issues aside, lots of people were told by Sky reps on calls that everything was available from the BBC on demand.

mad m

Was with VM for years, never had a problem only with some dead spots in house (Kids complaining) of drops in BB. Switched to Eir last year. BB is fairly solid I have to say, the Apple Tv box with Eir App is pure shite. Had trouble with some recordings etc. It can wreck my wife's head trying to navigate it looking for tv stations, suppose used to VM and pressing pre set numbers.

Talked to a mate of mine and he has Eir BB with Sky TV. Is the Sky stream a better OS than Eir?

babelfish1990

Eir TV on the Apple TV 4K box is the best of the streaming services. Eir is the only service that has unrestricted recording for BBC and other UK channels. Proper recording of BBC is vital, because BBC dont licence iPlayer outside UK. Other channels generally allow use of their catch-up players on the streaming pucks. RTE don't allow any of the streaming services to do recording, forcing viewers to use their iPlayer, which isn't licensed to keep recordings of all programmes.

Recording will never again be as straightforward or universal as on the legacy hard-disk boxes, but most users prefer the convenience of the streaming services, because traditional TV co-exists as another app on the desktop, alongside Netflix, Amazon Prime, YouTube and the channel players. The TV providers are rapidly retiring the legacy hard-disk boxes because they have better control of advertising on streaming, and because they need to move to fibre and shutdown legacy copper cable (VM) and Satellite (Sky, & Freesat).

icdg

@babelfish1990 you keep repeating your mantra “BBC don’t license iPlayer for outside the UK” even when you’ve been told repeatedly on this thread that the BBC have in fact licensed catch up to Sky in Ireland.

Now what has come of that deal is by all accounts full of missing content and limited in scope. And the BBC for whatever reason wont allow it to be called iPlayer. But the deal has still been done, and you can’t keep coming on saying the BBC won’t do a deal when in fact they have done one.

babelfish1990

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122345842#Comment_122345842

Sky "Catchup" is not remotely equivalent to BBC iPlayer. If you live in UK, you can download the BBC iPlayer app for a wide variety of hardware platforms, including Apple TV, Android/Chromecast, IOS, Freesat boxes, Sky Glass/Stream and most Smart TVs. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/help/questions/supported-devices

i-Player is a fully functional app that keeps track of your favourite programmes, and which episodes you have watched, so you can seamlessly switch from one platform to another and pick up watching where you left off - just like Netflix, Amazon Prime, All4 etc. RTE Player is a poor imitation, but it works reasonably well for locally produced content in Ireland.

If you live in Ireland, BBC iPlayer is not available from the key App stores. It also requires UK householder credentials to register, and the streams are geo-blocked from Irish IP addresses. I really do not see how you can claim that BBC iPlayer is "licenced" for use in Ireland, given these restrictions? Whatever licencing Sky have for putting BBC content on their catch-up is nothing equivalent to the rich experience from BBC iPlayer working across different platforms. All4 have their App working in Ireland across multiple platforms, but BBC probably don't want to licence iPlayer here because it is paid for by UK TV licence holders (no advertising), and they would object to subsidising it's use outside of UK? The Sky catchup for BBC is also extremely patchy (you have admitted this), and it is also very unlikely that the BBC would want their iPlayer brand associated with such a poor service.

The lack of availability of BBC iPlayer in Ireland means that users require a robust alternative solution for recording BBC channels. This was traditionally available on the legacy hard-drive boxes from the main providers, but these are all being retired. There are huge problems with the recording features on most of the new streaming platforms, and most users don't realize this until they have signed a 12 month contract. Most friends that I know who have opted for streaming services such as Sky Glass/Stream have found this to be the biggest problem with the services. I believe we have a duty to make people aware of this limitation, and not to delude them that services here are equivalent to the UK?

KildareP

Agree. The on demand offering from Sky Stream may as well not exist it's that useless. iPlayer Lite it is absolutely not.

Two examples:

(1) At Christmas, Call the Midwife: 2 of the episodes throughout the series didn't "record" yet the rest did. Cue an earful from the other half

(2) The Apprentice didn't "record" at all.

If you were coming from Sky Q or earlier, or were expecting BBC content to behave on Stream like, say RTE or Virgin, you are in for a rude awakening.

icdg

@babelfish1990 that is all fine, and the points are well made, it was more the bald assertion that there was nothing in place without explaining the nuances. We might have no further discussion of moderation on thread.

Let’s also be clear - eir have had a 5 year head start over everyone else with this type of service to sort rights issues out. When eir TV debuted all the way back in 2019 it had exactly the same issues, including with BBC, that VM, Vodafone, and Sky are having now. They still haven’t sorted recording for RTE and VMTV.

More generally, I absolutely think people need to know what is awaiting them if they sign up to one of these new generation pay tv services. If recording is mission critical for you, go for Sky Q, while it is still there, if you need pay tv channels, or a Saorview / Freesat solution if you don’t. That’s assuming the option of a dish is open to you. Some people can’t have one and that needs to be acknowledged too. And satellite probably only has five years or thereabouts left in it as a UK TV distribution mode anyway, but hopefully that will give the pay tv providers a chance to sort out the recording issues.

Schorpio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122345842#Comment_122345842

Why was this in moderator bold?

Babelfish's points are valid, and I don't think he broke any forum rules.

icdg

48 hour ban for Schorpio for discussing moderation on thread after an on thread warning was given.

And in general, moderation directed at a particular user will only be discussed, via PM, with the user to whom the moderation involves. It’s not for other users to get involved with moderation directed at someone else - it isn’t their business, quite frankly.

Red Silurian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122335916#Comment_122335916

That's simply a barefaced lie and a consumer rights issue.

nice bit of green

We got stream about 3 months having never had any tv subscription. Never used recording or iplayer etc so the lack of it doesn’t bother me.

The live sport buffers a bit and the Internet dropped off last week forcing me to go to the office for a day. Other than that, it’s great.

bennyl10

While the above is a tad bit mental

It’s a fair point re earlier, this is a discussion forum. Having Mods come in when a rule hasn’t been broken and using the ban hammer, while then using the “we don’t discuss moderation and I’m correct” to justify it?

None of anyone’s business as if it doesn’t legitimately affect all of us

icdg

The matter has been referred to the Admins.

Bennyl10 banned for 48 hours for discussing moderation on thread.

Beyond that. This thread is temporarily closed until people calm down and are ready to have a discussion other than about moderation. The user in the post two posts above is permanently banned and the post deleted. This is on the basis that username “IDCG” was chosen to misrepresent my own, and appears to have been registered just to personally abuse me and is presumably a rereg, which is not allowed on Boards.ie

AndrewJRenko

I see that Sky have changed the claims on their website from “all your favourite shows ready and waiting” to “all your favourite Sky shows…” which is a bit more realistic.

digiman

Is there anyway to try out Sky Stream while keeping Sky Q?

DopeTech

Order for parents/friends address who doesn’t already have sky and use it at yours?